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G8
summit to focus on Africa, climate change: Ambassador
PM IN JAPAN FOR SUMMIT
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 ADDIS
ABEBA(July 7,2008) - G8
summit meeting in Toyako, northern Japan, will focus on Africa development
issues in expanded meeting with leaders of seven African countries,
including Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, Japanese Ambassador
to Ethiopia Kunichi Komano said at a news conference on Friday.
The summit which opens today(Monday July 7) in the Japanese northern
city of Hokkaido brings together the leaders from the United States,
Japan, Germany, Russia, France, Italy, Britain and Canada.
G8 leaders will conduct Africa outreach working lunch with leaders
of Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania
and the chairman of the African Union Commission.
Komano said the summit would also dwell on climate changes, global
economy, weapons of mass destruction and global terrorism.
According to the ambassador, the summit is expected to pass resolutions
on pressing African issues which he said would be deliberated up on
thoroughly.
The ambassador said the summit would also deliberate on Japan's "Cool
Earth 50" proposal, which calls for halving global carbon dioxide
emissions by 2050, Ambassador
Komano added.
Kumano said the summit would be an opportunity for G8 countries to
hold firm conviction to support African nations in their efforts to
realize the Millennium Development Goals, with which many African
states are on track, despite challenges.
"Though Africa has many challenges, the continent has been registering
encouraging economic growth," he said.
Reflecting the meeting's focus on African issues, the chairman of
the African Union Commission is also expected to attend.
The session would have to accept or reject the Africa Action Plan
(agreed to at the 2002 Kananaskis G-8 Summit in Canada) as the framework
for engagement between the G-8 nations and Africa.
The African Progress Panel, set up in 2005 to monitor the implementation
of the 2005 commitments, said in a report last month that G8 aid to
Africa will fall 40 billion dollars short of the Gleneagles pledge
under current plans.
However, some analysts said that it is a high time G8 leaders focus
on trade if they hope to uplift the continent from poverty and diseases.
"For Africa, it's about trade and not aid, anymore. There is
a yawning chasm between the rhetoric and the reality," a Kenyan
stock analyst told a news agency on Friday.
Two years ago, G8 leaders promised to double financial assistance
to Africa to $22 billion by the year 2010. But according to reports,
just 14 percent of those funds have been delivered.
This year's summit will include China and India in a separate meeting
of 16 major economies responsible for 80 percent of world carbon-dioxide
emissions. In addition, Mexico, Brazil, South Korea, Indonesia, and
Australia are invited to this summit.
Prime Minister Fukuda intends a 50-percent reduction in greenhouse
gases by 2050. White House officials said that is a worthy goal, but
they are focused more on each nation setting its own mid-term targets.
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